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Helliniki Dimokratia
'Hellas or Hellinki Dimokratia '(Hellenic: Ελλάδα) officially the 'Hellenic Republic '(Hellenic: ελληνική δημοκρατία), is a country in southern Europe. Currently headed by Eleftherios Venizelos, Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic. Hellas is bordered to the north by Albania, Serbia, and Bulgaria; to the west by the Ionian Sea; to the south by the Cretean and Mediterranean Sea; to the southeast by Italian Anatolia; and to the east by the Ottoman Empire and the Aegean Sea. The Hellenic Republic is a parliamentary Republic with a bi-cameral system; the Head of State is elected by the Parliament and by the Senate for a 5 years long term. The Second Hellenic Republic was proclaimed on 30th of August 1916 after a coup by the army in Thessaloniki during a rise of conflicts between Venizelists and the King. As a winner of the Great War, Hellas gained the majority of their claimed land in Anatolia and is a Part of the Imperial Protection Alliance, the British military league composed of colonies and many commercial partners. History 1821-1916 Since the start of the XIXth Century, the Greeks had begun to develop a sense of belonging to a greater Greek culture and history. Many associations started to be found between Ottoman Greeks and members of the Greek Diaspora, until up to a revolt in 1821 lead to a full blown conflict for the independence of the Greek people. After the assasination of Ioannis Kapodistrias, a Monarchy under the House of Wittelsbach by push of the Western Powers, was established. In 1843 a First Costitution was made, but the Authoritarian rule of Otto von Wittelsbach lead to his Dethroning in 1862 and replacement with George von Glücksburg. In 1881, Thessaly and small parts of the Epirus were given to Hellas in the Treaty of Berlin. War escalated in 1897 over the island of Crete, Greek troops were poorly equipped, and only thanks to international aid, was Crete made an autonomous state. In 1909 a coup lead Cretan Politician Eleftherios Venizelos to power, who quickly began to militarise and thanks to the International Alliance, by 1913, had doubled the size of the nation, annexing Crete, Epirus, and Macedonia. From 1913 growing dissents between Prime Minister and King, lead to the polarization of the Political Sphere until 1916. The National Schism Since the defeat of 1897, Republicanism and distrust for the Monarchy, had been rising in the military. Young officers began to blame the crown prince, who at the time was commanding the army, for the failure. In 1909 a military coup, with huge support from the public, forced the King to remove princes from the military and appoint Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis as Prime Minister. Kyriakoulis wasn't able to properly rule the nation and offered Prime Ministership to Republican Eleftherios Venizelos. After the Balkan War of 1913, King and Prime Minister were both loved by the citizens and were seen as making up a formidable partnership at the helm of the Greek state. As the Great War began, the Greek authorities had to choose between neutrality and aligning themselves with the Allied forces. The supporters of neutrality were mostly germanophile, that considered joining the Central Powers a diplomatic suicide both at home and abroad, and thus decided to not support the entering of the War. Interventionists were instead mostly Liberals and the military, who wanted to achieve the Megali Idea. The Prime Minister instantly supported the Intervention on the side of the Entente, while the King and the Higher Military staff, who were raised in German Schools, preferred to not meddle. On March 6th, after many other private clashes, Eleftherios resigned as Prime Minister. His resignation created anger among his supporter who pushed for another election in June. Venizelos' Liberal Party won, but the King refused to ratify his role until August. In the meantime, Bulgaria had declared war on Serbia, creating a new possible threat to Hellas, a bill to formalize the defense pact with Serbia was proposed to the King, but he only agreed in the case of direct invasion. After his inability to sway Constantine to act against Bulgaria, Venizelos took a new route by allowing British and French troops to land in Macedonia in preparation for their attack on Gallipoli; this caused disarray in the Greek government and Venizelos took advantage of this by forcing through a parliamentary motion (with a 37-vote margin) to declare war on Bulgaria. In November the King got tired of Venizelos' attitude and dismissed the government. A month later he made the Prime Minister resign for a second time. Venizelos flew to Crete after this decision. Proclamation of the Republic and Civil War The 30th of August, 1916, saw a coup against the Royalist government by Ethniki Amyna (Εθνική Άμυνα, National Defence), a secret pro-Venizelist military organization based in Thessaloniki. The coup succeeded to the extent that a second provisional government of Hellas was formed by the group. With the backing of the Entente, Venizelos returned to the Greek mainland to lead the new provisional government at the head of a triumvirate. In retaliation against Ethniki Amyna a royalist paramilitary unit called the "Reservists" was formed, the nation was in a state of civil war. Venizelos Government instantly declared war on Bulgaria and let Entente Nation use Hellas as a bridgehead against the Central powers. In November, French Marines engaged royalist troops in Athens and succesfully evacuated the city. Ιn retaliation, the Venizelos National Defence Government and the Entente instituted a naval blockade, seized the royalist fleet, and demanded the partial disarmament of the royalist forces and their withdrawal to the Peloponnese. The blockade lasted 106 days in total, during which time no goods were allowed to enter or leave royalist-controlled ports that were under the control of the Athens government. The Venizelist-Entente blockade eventually succeeded in its aim. In June 1917, after threats to bombard Athens if the King remained, Constantine abdicated and left Hellas alongside the whole Royal Family. Venizelos proclaimed the Republic and took control of the government pledging Greek support to the Entente. In July the country officially declared war on the Central Powers. During the remaining 18 months of the war 10 divisions of the Greek army fought alongside the Allied forces against Bulgarian and German forces in Macedonia and Bulgaria. During the conflict Greek forces participated in many victorious battles, losing approximately 5.000 troops. 1923 Turkish Spring Category:European countries Category:Countries